Stroke Survivor Runs for a Cause, Making a Difference [AUDIO]

ST. CLOUD – Not many of us could ever think of having a stroke as being a blessing, but today we have a story of a young from St. Cloud who has used this adversity to make a big difference.

In June of 2007 Kyle Scheeler’s life changed forever. He was at home with his parents when all of a sudden he started having a stroke.

The stroke happened just prior to Scheeler’s senior year at Cathedral High School. He says, because he was young and otherwise healthy, his recovery went well. And, when he left for college in Duluth, he thought he’d put the stroke behind him.

It finally ‘clicked’ for him one day when he was reading a story about former New England Patriot’s playerTedy Bruschi, who also was a stroke survivor. Last year Scheeler wrote his idol Bruschi a letter explaining how similar their stories were. A short time later he received a call from the organizer of Tedy’s Team, a group that runs in the Boston Marathon every year to raise awareness and money for the American Stroke Association. Scheeler had been invited to run with the team, which he did – his first marathon ever.

Now Scheeler spends his time giving back to other people who might be looking up to him. At a stroke walk in Minneapolis last summer he met a boy named Elliot, who had a stroke when he was five-years-old. Elliot is a huge sports fan, and Scheeler made it his goal for Elliot to meet his sports idol.

Scheeler says he’ll be graduating from St. Cloud State University next year, and he plans to make community service and involvement a career.

In the meantime, Scheeler says he’ll keep running marathons for the cause. He’ll be running on Tedy’s Team in the Boston Marathon again this year on April 16th. You can help him by donating to his cause.

And he’s also hosting a pasta dinner fundraiser on Saturday, March 10th at 4:30 p.m. at the St. Augusta Legion.

Kyle is such an articulate young man, you can listen to our entire interview with him by clicking on the audio player below: